As quoted in the AP article:
"You'll all have to see. I'm not saying anything until we unveil it," Phelps said with a grin when asked how he's tweaked the stroke. "It's a significant change. You'll be able to tell exactly what I did as soon as I take my first stroke."
He's on tap to swim the 100- and 200-meter free and the 100 butterfly at the Charlotte UltraSwim in NC. Should be interesting to see.
Sounds like he will be pushing the shorter distance events for the World Championships this year. It will be interesting to see how he lives up to the extra-high expectation levels fans will have when they tune in to the meet in Rome! I especially look forward to seeing what he can do focusing on the 100 m free!
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it won't be a straight-arm recover. I'm thinking more of a rotary stroke without the lope and long glide he has now.
One question-how long does it take to make an obvious change in the stroke that it is effective and doesn't slow the swimmer down? I guess it would be longer for us mere mortals compared to Phelps. Just curious to know how long it takes.
Let's see, Phelps popped off the 4x100 relay in 47.51 in Beijing shortly after swimming a 200 free prelim. World record is 47.05.
He could break it in his sleep without changing a thing. Playing with his stroke will just affect how much he breaks it by.
Every swimmer should be tweaking or trying to improve their stroke. I'm glad Phelps doesn't think that hard work alone is going to make him swim faster.
The girls swim team has a new coach who acts like she knows everything. Her name is Claire Buoyant.
Pun from Mark - Hebo, Oregon
Phelps hasn't done very much really short distance stuff, has he? It always seems like he's in 200 or 400 stuff (of course, there's the 50 or 100 in the relays he does). And the 100 fly he likes. I guess he wants to dominate a completely new area of the sport. It'll be fun watching him. :)
What else could it be besides straight-arm / windmill recovery? I can't think of anything technique-wise that we'd notice on the first stroke, as he says...unless it's something totally new that no one's seen before...which would be so awesome.
Presuming he'll still use his "normal" technique for a 200, can anyone think of an elite swimmer that employed fundamentally different techniques in the same stroke depending on the nature or distance of the race? Does this happen a lot and I'm just naive?
I'm not talking about different breathing patterns or stroke rates or anything similarly subtle -- but something legitimately different that looks like two different swimmers.
I've seen the Race Club's "Three Styles of Freestyle," but those styles don't seem as drastically different as a possible Phelps lope vs. windmill. (maybe I was just caught up in the trippy cinematography).
The press is going to be all over that meet. Some network really needs to run this meet live. NBC, here is a way to get some ratings. I am sure that this will get bigger 18-49 numbers than Hereos or all the Law and Orders.
I think that Phelps is having fun now with his swimming. He doesn't have to do anything anymore because he has proven that he is the greatest swimmer of all time. Now, he can experiment with new techniques and focus on new events like the sprints. If he doesn't dominate, the mainstream sports press will call him a failure. If he dominates, good for Phelps.
